BLUEWATER CURRENTS
Release points determine this year’s winners
Repeating as the winner of a prestigious billfish tournament is rare, with only a handful of experienced teams achieving that accomplishment over the course of their careers. The Desperado team, led by Capt. Rob Barker, did just that during the 37th Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament in Manteo, North Carolina, this season, releasing 16 white marlin to earn top boat honors. The team’s anglers were Mickey Carter, Brad Ward, Craig Sudbrink, Billy Carter, Andy Gay and Ron Wade, while mates Jeff James and JT Roehrs worked the deck of the 56-foot Taylor Harrison, an Oregon Inlet-based charter boat. This marks the second time in eight years that a boat has won the PCBT two years in a row; Capt. Jesse Granitzki’s Bi-Op-Sea was the last boat to accomplish that feat when they went back-to-back in 2011 and 2012.
Continuing to run his own rig in tournaments around the world, Brooks Smith returned to the awards stage at Pirate’s Cove this year as captain of Uno Mas, his 77-foot Mark Willis. Smith’s anglers logged 14 billfish releases to finish in second place. Home-ported at Pirate’s Cove, the 59-foot Spencer Sea Toy—owned by Jim Bayne and captained by Bull Tolson—placed third with 11 billfish releases. The team fishing with Capt. Dale Britt aboard Sensation, a 52-foot Jarrett Bay and Hull No. 1 for that boatbuilder, finished in fourth place with 10 releases, while Mama C, a 60-foot Bayliss, rounded out the top five. For the tournament, the fleet released 473 billfish overall: 398 white marlin, 31 blue marlin, 42 sailfish and two spearfish. There were no qualifying blue marlin weighed this year.
SEA TOY WINS VBBT Tight fishing leads to a tiebreaker on time
Despite releasing nine billfish on the first day of the Virginia Beach Billfish Tournament, and an additional four the following day, Capt. Bull Tolson’s Sea Toy team still found themselves sweating out the final minutes of the tournament. By the call for lines out, four other teams
found themselves tied in points at 910— any of the four could have moved into first with the release of any billfish species, but Tolson and company’s luck held up for the win. “It was a long day hanging around,” Tolson said. “I tried not to look at the leaderboard, but my crew was checking it every hour. The only thing that saved us is the Good Lord gave us the chance to catch ours first. It was an awesome tournament that was handled very well under the conditions,” he added. The team, including anglers David Biggs, Amanda Cofer, Ken Cofer, Dan Stephano, Tommy Fowler, Timmy Cullins, and mates Catlin Peele and Tim Kidwell, swept multiple first-place awards, including Top Boat, Top Crew, Billfish Jackpot and High
Rollers Jackpot. The heaviest dolphin at 30.3 pounds added to the boat’s total winnings of $281,333.
The other four teams that pulled even with Sea Toy during the week were Don’t Panic, Full Pull, Builder’s Choice and Grand Slam, finishing in second through fifth places, respectively. Don’t Panic, a 56-foot Viking owned by Andrew Norris and run by Capt. Carl Beale, released 12 white marlin and one sailfish for a second-place finish. The team fishing on the Charleston, South Carolina-based 57-foot Croswait Full Pull finished with 11 white marlin and two
blue marlin for third place. Builder’s Choice, a 64-foot Jarrett Bay owned by Harris Huddle and run by Capt. Brent Gaskill, was also a hard-charging Saturday contender. The team earned the fourth-place trophy based on its final-day tally of seven white marlin releases (13 billfish releases overall) to tie the other top scores. Rounding out the top five was Grand Slam, a 61-foot Paul Mann owned by Wallis Higginbotham and run by Capt. Dave Grubbs. Grand Slam also pulled off a win in this year’s Alice Kelly Memorial Ladies Only Billfish Tournament, held each year just prior to the Pirate’s Cove Billfish Tournament.
Shelley Smith swept the individual angler awards, including Top Overall, Top Release and Top Lady Angler, releasing nine white marlin. Smith was competing aboard Triple S; her husband, Capt. Todd Smith, owns and runs the 60-foot Viking, which is based in Morehead City, North Carolina. The 80 boats competing in the 17th annual invitational tournament were vying for a cash purse of $620,000. The fleet caught 429 billfish during three days of fishing, including 394 white marlin, 25 blues, six sailfish and four spearfish. All were released.
“We always say the fishing and the weather are two things out of our control,” VBBT tournament director Paula Owen said. “But the weather was perfect; the fishing was outstanding. We couldn’t have scripted a better finish with five boats with identical scores. And the things we could control we tried to improve every day. It was a challenge, but it all worked out really well. We delivered the awards to the boats, starting with Sea Toy so they could enjoy the spotlight, and then we worked our way through the list of all the winners. It really was a unique, fun week.”